My Neighbor Claims Part of My Land, Which I Have Owned For Decades, Belongs to Him. After Surveying the Land, He is Actually Right. What Can I Do? You May Have a Claim to Keep That Land Under The Legal Doctrine of Adverse Possession.

The following scenario happens more than you would expect. You
find a home after years of looking and it is perfect. You purchase the home and
start a family. You mow the lawn, plant trees, make a garden, and work hard to
make sure that every inch of your property looks beautiful. Your property is
separated from your neighbor’s lot by an old fence that was put up by the
previous owners. You have never had the property surveyed and your neighbor has
not either. You believe the fence was accurately erected along the boundary
line and have no reason to question otherwise.

Many years later, your neighbor plans to sell her property to an
eager purchaser. The purchaser decides to have a survey done of the property
and is surprised to learn that the fence separating your properties was not
erected along the boundary line, as you both had believed. In fact, the fence
was actually erroneously erected twenty-five feet inward from the boundary line
onto your neighbor’s property, which means that a twenty-five foot strip of
land which you had thought was yours is actually part of your neighbor’s lot.
You planted trees and a garden in this strip for years and spent many, many
hours maintaining this area. You even constructed a play scape for your kids in
this twenty-five foot strip area and watched your kids swing for years.
However, after your neighbor provides you with a copy of the survey, you
realize that the garden, trees, and play scape are all on your neighbor’s
property, and she is now demanding that you remove everything and move the
fence to accurately reflect the boundary line. This would result in you losing
a 25 foot strip of your property! You sympathize with your neighbor, but you
and your family love that strip of land and it has become an integral part of
your Property over the years. What are your options? What can you do?

You may be able to legally acquire that strip of land…

Edward Schenkel

You may be able legally acquire that strip of land under a
theory of a legal doctrine called Adverse Possession. Connecticut law
recognizes Adverse Possession as a mechanism to acquire legal title to
Property. If you can establish title of land by Adverse Possession, you will
own the land the same as if you had acquired the land by deed from the owner.
However, in order to establish title by adverse possession, you must establish
the necessary elements by submitting evidence to the Court.

The
use must also be exclusive, and shared dominion by you and your neighbor will
likely defeat any claim that you acquired the land by adverse possession.186
Conn. 490, 498 (1982). First, the owner of the land must be ousted from possession
and kept out uninterruptedly for fifteen years under a claim of right. This
essentially means that the possession and use of the land must be without
permission and you must treat the land as your own. Roche v. Fairfield, The following are the elements
that you must satisfy to establish a claim that you have acquired land through
adverse possession. The elements are established by statute and reiterated by
case law in cases, including the Supreme Court case.

In order to make such a claim, you must file… Action to Quiet Title…

Edward Schenkel

The other elements that you must establish to claim title to
land through the doctrine of adverse possession are that your use must be
uninterrupted, open, visible, and exclusive, for a period of fifteen years.
While each element has been articulated in more detail by the Courts, this
generally means that your use of the land must be commonly known and must also
be continual. The Courts will examine the specific facts of the case to
determine whether your use was commonly known and continual, and look at things
like maintenance, frequency of use, and other factors. In a case like the
example above, a strong claim may be made that the use was commonly known and
continual if the claimant maintained and used the property frequently.

Therefore, if you find
yourself in a situation like the example discussed above, you need not forfeit
your strip of land to your neighbor notwithstanding an erroneously placed fence
if you can prove the elements of adverse possession. In order to make such a
claim, you must file an action the Court called an Action to Quiet Title, which
is a cause of action used to settle title disputes. If you can prove your case,
you will receive an order from the court allowing you to acquire title to the
strip of land and the integrity of your lot will be preserved.